New Nintendo 3DS

The New Nintendo 3DS is the fourth iteration of the Nintendo 3DS and the third revision, after the Nintendo 3DS XL and the Nintendo 2DS. Unlike those two, however, which featured solely cosmetic changes, this adds technological improvements akin to the jump from the Nintendo DS to the Nintendo DSi. It was announced in a Japan-exclusive Nintendo Direct held on August 29, 2014. [1] The handheld released in October 11, 2014 in Japan, in both regular and XL versions. The regular version will retail for ¥160,000 and the XL for ¥180,000. It was later released for Australia on November 21, 2014. An Ambassador Edition of the system was released for certain Club Nintendo members in Europe on January 6, 2015. It was released for Europe and North America on February 13, 2015, with the XL version of the system only released in North America. It retails in North America for a MSRP of $199.99.

Contents

Features

The system most notably features a small, second analog stick on the right side of the console, known as the c-stick. Zl and ZR buttons have also been added to the back of the handheld. Facial camera tracing has been added, which follows the player's line of sight, allow them to now view the system's stereoscopic 3D effect from multiple angles. Brightness is also now toggled automatically according to environmental lighting. [2] The touch screen has built-in NFC technology for use with Nintendo's line of Amiibo figures.

Inside the system, a more powerful CPU processor allows for faster download speeds and improved graphical capability, resulting in the system being able to play games that the original 3DS could not run, such as Xenoblade. [3] The system supports MicroSD cards, and an improved web browser supports HTML5. The face buttons are colored, adopting the color scheme of the Super Famicom's controller buttons. Both regular and XL versions are slightly larger and feature better battery life over their previous incarnations, with the regular New 3DS able to be customized by removing and inserting face plates into the top and bottom of the system's outside. [4]